<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>I have no friends... yet by ewinkie</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929065">I have no friends... yet</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewinkie/pseuds/ewinkie'>ewinkie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zutara Drabble December 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(well duh), But I went over the word limit again, Creepy Zhao (Avatar), F/M, Loneliness, POV Katara (Avatar), POV Zuko (Avatar), Season 1 Zutara, Season/Series 01, Soft Zuko (Avatar), That's right people, Zhao (Avatar) Is An Asshole, Zutara Drabble December 2020, juxtaposition between Zuko and Zhao, oh well</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:13:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewinkie/pseuds/ewinkie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko and Katara are both imprisoned by Zhao. Zhao is, as stated in the tags, an asshole, so Zuko makes sure that she's okay. She is flabbergasted. Discussion ensues.</p><p>Written for Zutara Drabble December 2020, Day 6: Are You Lonely?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zutara Drabble December 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2038174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>107</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>ZK Drabble December 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I have no friends... yet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Tw: There are vague allusions to sexual harassment and threats of sexual assault in this fic. Be warned.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Much as he deplored the situation he was in, Zuko couldn’t help but relish in Zhao’s anger throughout the interrogation. As someone who learned the hard way that tying the avatar’s waterbender to a tree – well, in this case, a metal pole – was an ineffective way to ascertain the bald child’s location, there was something <em>immensely</em> satisfying in watching the newly appointed Admiral exhaust countless intimidation tactics just to get her to talk.</p><p>But there were two problems hampering his enjoyment of Zhao’s humiliation. The first of these was the simple fact that he too was tied to the tree. And while Zuko knew that as long as he was banished, Zhao could do whatever he wanted to him without being accused of treason, he’d certainly hoped that even just one of the soldiers around them would take issue with capturing and questioning their prince. Nope. Apparently not.</p><p>The second issue was that, unlike when he interrogated the waterbender, he knew what exactly she was feeling at this very moment. He could feel the chains rattle ever so slightly. He heard every time she sucked in a breath as Zhao held a fire dagger to her throat. He saw each momentary flash of panic in her eyes when the near-deranged admiral yelled and firebended in all directions out of sheer fury. And he felt her arm shaking against his every time Zhao walked past, or a soldier took a moment to glare at her.</p><p>Her palpable fear ate away at Zuko. Had she been this terrified as <em>he</em> interrogated her? Hopefully not. At least <em>he</em> hadn’t firebended at her. Or let surrounding soldiers make lewd remarks about her – he was aghast that Zhao <em>allowed</em> these remarks, let alone laughed at them too.</p><p>Yet in spite of it all, she didn’t break. The only words she spoke were insults to her captors. And while Zuko was incredibly aware of every slight hint that betrayed her fear, to Zhao and the others, she almost certainly appeared either incredibly brave, or incredibly stubborn. Zhao probably thought the latter. Zuko thought the former.</p><p>Even once night fell, and Zhao and the other soldiers had retreated to catch some sleep, he could still feel her shaking. She took long, deep breaths, and leaned her head back against the large metal pole, as though struggling to remain calm.  Suddenly, it occurred to him that she might be scared <em>of him</em>.</p><p>And he was surprised to learn that… well, it bothered him. His goal had never been to harm her in any way, but he still shouldn’t care what an enemy thought of him. Heck, it would probably be <em>helpful</em> if she – a novice waterbender, sometimes the only thing keeping him from his goal – was scared of him. Then maybe she’d stop freezing him and his soldiers to various items.</p><p>But still, he didn’t like any of this. He didn’t like that he was tied to a metal pole. He didn’t like the cruelty of Zhao’s interrogation. He didn’t like that just because this waterbender was a pretty girl, the admiral and his men thought it was okay to say unsavory things to her. And he really didn’t like seeing how scared she was.</p><p>Before he even got the chance to think about it, the words “Are you okay?” slipped out of his mouth.</p>
<hr/><p>Katara froze. Had Zuko (Zuko!) just asked her, in a soft tone of voice, if she was okay?! She looked to the side, and saw that he was looking at her, concern in his expression and questions in his eyes. So, apparently, he had asked.</p><p>“Um, yeah… yeah, I guess so.” She fixed her gaze determinedly on her feet.</p><p>“Are you sure?” His tone was wary.</p><p>“What do you want me to say?” she snapped. “I’m tied to a vertical object sticking out of the ground <em>again</em>, I’ve been interrogated for the past <em>four hours</em> with several threats of being burnt alive, and Admiral Mutton Chops has made it alarmingly clear that were you not chained to this pole, very unpleasant things would occur between me and him. Does it <em>seem</em> like I’m okay?!”</p><p>She expected him to snap back. She expected him to yell, and tell her that it’s her own damn fault for traveling with the avatar, or that she could’ve saved herself all of these unpleasantries by just telling Mutton Chops (fine, she doesn’t know his real name, happy?) where Aang is. But he didn’t do any of that.</p><p>Instead he sighed, and said, “I’m sorry. Zhao is a jerk, he shouldn’t have taken it this far.”</p><p>“What do you mean ‘this far’?!”</p><p>He locked eyes with her. She would’ve shrunk back from the intensity of his stare, had there not been a shimmer of softness, a glimpse of remorse in his golden eyes. “He shouldn’t have threatened to hurt you,” he stated matter-of-factly.</p><p>And just before she was about to launch into a barrage of ‘really, well you didn’t seem to have such a problem with it while <em>you</em> were doing the interrogating’ she realized that he <em>hadn’t</em>. He’d tried to bribe her with her mother’s necklace – which she would like back, thank you very much – and spouted of some bullshit about needing to ‘reclaim his honor,’ but he hadn’t actually threatened to harm her. The only time he raised a flame had been to burn the scroll – an intimidation tactic against the <em>pirates</em>, people he was working with, and not even the prisoner.</p><p>She soon realized that she was staring at him confusedly, and, to regain some semblance of dignity (and stop considering that Zuko might have redeeming qualities, because damn, that would make things very complicated), she said, “It doesn’t matter. My friends will be here to rescue me soon.”  He looked at the ground. She added, “I’m sure yours will too, and we can finally get away from each other.”</p><p>“I don’t have any friends.” He said it so soon, so devoid of any emotion, that her previous intention to not see the crazed prince, who's been chasing her around the world, as a person with emotions flew out the window.</p><p>“What do you mean? You travel with a pretty large group of people, don’t you?”</p><p>Stiffly, he replied, “Those aren’t my friends. They’re my crew, and they’re all at least six years older than I am. The only one I even really know is my uncle.”</p><p>“But you’ve been traveling with them for at least a few months now, haven’t you? Wouldn’t that have given you the chance to befriend them?”</p><p>“None of them want to be there. They probably all resent me.” His tone was short, but not quite angry. “It’s not exactly fun to take orders from a sixteen-year-old, dishonored, banished prince.”</p><p>Well, now he’d gone and dipped in to ‘potentially tragic backstory’ territory, and Katara was not eager to fully dip her toes into that water. she's read romance scrolls. she knows where that leads. But in spite of her best judgement, what she said next was, “Well, don’t you write to your friends back home?”</p><p>“I didn’t have friends back home.” Katara’s jaw nearly dropped. He didn’t even seem sad about it. He acted like it was just a fact of life for him, and her plan to avoid feeling empathy for him shattered completely.</p><p>The question flew out before Katara thought to stop it. “Aren’t you lonely?”</p>
<hr/><p>Zuko never got the chance to respond to her question. It caught him off guard, and then when he turned to respond,  a pair of wide, sympathetic blue eyes temporarily removed his ability to speak. Once he regained it, there were cries of, “Katara, thank Spirits you’re okay!” and she left with her friends.</p><p>It’s probably for the best. In that moment, he wouldn’t have known how to respond. But now, as he sits alone in his cold, metal chambers, he knows what the answer would be. He knows that the pain he felt when she ran onto the giant bison – how does that thing get airborne?! – was not anger that the avatar was getting away once more, but jealousy.</p><p>He wishes he had friends. He <em>is</em> lonely.</p><p>And months later, when he’s back in his old room, he knows how to recognize the feeling. He can tell that even with Mai, and his honor, and everything else he’s ever wanted, he’s still lonely. <em>Painfull</em><em>y </em>lonely.</p><p>So, he leaves to find the pretty, kind waterbender with the blue eyes. She taught him what loneliness was. Hopefully she can teach him how to cure it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, well, well. Here we are again. Several hundred words over the suggested limit once more. But ya know what, I think there's so little Season 1 Zutara, that a few extra words won't hurt.</p><p>I ADORE the juxtaposition between Zuko and Zhao, in the series, so I hope I've done it justice in this fic. I also really like the small ways they show he isn't fully an awful person, it was just so well done, and probably why I shipped them as early as season 1.  *cries in thinking the strong bender Katara was going to marry was Zuko*</p><p>Uhhh, anyways, thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>